Extra session on heating aid proposed

11/03/2005

Dane Smith,
Star Tribune
Last update: November 2, 2005 at 11:11 PM

Interest in a special legislative session surfaced again Wednesday, but this time the pressure came from advocates hoping to address home heating costs, not stadium bills.

Soaring fuel prices this winter should compel Gov. Tim Pawlenty to call a special session so the Legislature can approve additional aid for financially strapped Minnesotans, said Sen. Ellen Anderson, DFL-St. Paul.

The call was joined by more than a dozen interest groups, including the Minnesota Senior Coalition, the Minnesota Farmers Union, the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and the Minnesota AFL-CIO.

With heating costs projected to rise 40 percent to 50 percent and federal allocations to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program in the state declining from $85 million to $70 million this year, the state government needs to help fill a gap of at least $135 million, Anderson said.

She also ticked off a long list of other possible policy initiatives, including increasing the income limit for heating aid, tougher limits on shut-offs by utilities for unpaid bills and a sales tax holiday during which purchases of weatherproofing materials would be tax-exempt.

Pawlenty, who has been talking with legislative leaders for months about holding a special session to consider stadium proposals and other unfinished business, responded with encouraging words. Spokesman Brian McClung said Pawlenty “welcomes these ideas and input. He believes energy costs are an important issue, and he and his administration have been working on it. We will make some energy-related announcements shortly.”

But McClung stopped well short of saying Pawlenty is ready now to call a special session. “Senator Anderson should start by talking to her caucus leader [Majority Leader Dean Johnson] because he has indicated that he will not be able to keep his caucus to a limited agenda and a limited time.”

Meanwhile, McClung also confirmed that top Pawlenty aides are continuing to talk privately to legislators about whether they could support a special session for a limited agenda that possibly includes energy assistance, a University of Minnesota football stadium and a Minnesota Twins baseball stadium.

“Our staff has been in contact with legislators about tackling these issues,” McClung said. “It’s part of an ongoing effort the governor has talked about and it’s nothing out of the ordinary.”

Anderson said she doesn’t want a special session that would have energy assistance as its primary purpose but would also produce hundreds of millions of dollars in stadium subsidies for privately owned teams.

“If that was the result, I think we’d all look really bad,” she said, allowing that she could vote for a Gophers proposal. “But somehow I don’t think the votes are there for stadiums.”

Dane Smith • 651-292-0164